


Saved and Earned

by Tonko



Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-06
Updated: 2011-08-06
Packaged: 2017-10-22 07:23:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/235430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tonko/pseuds/Tonko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Integrity is a hard road, but Helmeppo is trying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saved and Earned

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the awesome [printfogey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/printfogey/profile). Any remaining errors are all mine.

The night after Helmeppo had been made his father's hostage in possibly the worst day he'd ever experienced in his life, he and Coby both lay awake, exhausted but unable to sleep. Garp was beyond fearsome, and while Coby had signed up for this, even he still seemed terrified. And yet he'd stood up against the man and his marines on Helmeppo's behalf.

Coby wanted to be a marine more than anything, and he'd still risked losing all of it. Helmeppo manifestly had NOT intended this career path, and if some rational part of him was grateful for this opportunity instead of a prison sentence for what he'd done under his father, the rest of him, the part still very used to hysterically screaming until he got his way, was a gibbering wreck.

But if Coby could risk everything to save him, Helmeppo would damn well have to do his best to make that risk have been worth taking. He _had to_.

He clung to the declaration he'd made to his father, his resolve that he still could feel, strong enough to brace himself against, despite his fear. He felt some minor pride for that, the first he'd truly had in himself for... as long as he could remember, just as Coby had been the first person ever to offer friendship... Helmeppo was afraid, but he would be able to get up tomorrow and keep working towards his goal.

For now, though, he was desperately grateful that he was not here alone. The prospect of what lay before them both... he felt like he was being pressed into his thin bedroll, unable to breathe under the immense pressure.

“I'm sorry,” Helmeppo said quietly into the dark, his voice coming out strangled as he stared up into the gloom of this long, crowded crew hold on Garp's ship. He and Coby had been shown to a corner and handed a bedroll each. Not even a hammock; there was no room. Coby had accepted his bedroll with a proud, tired smile and a smart nod. Helmeppo had not managed to smile, but had thanked the quartermaster's chore boy politely, the first time he'd addressed anyone in the Marine outfit in that way. He'd received a genial grin in return, something Helmeppo was all too aware he'd never have gotten if this chore boy had actually known him at all.

“Huh?” Coby replied, the word coming out as a bit of a gasp, as if Helmeppo had surprised him out of some train of thought.

“I'm sorry I held a gun on you,” Helmeppo said. Some of this immense pressure on his chest would surely let up if he got that much off it at least. And indeed, he felt like he could breath just a bit easier now that he'd said it. It had been far too long now, he knew, for him to even offer the words. Coby had never held it against him, even while Helmeppo had spent so much of his energy thus far hating Coby, hating that Strawhat, for the loss of his old life.

“Oh,” Coby answered with the tone of someone being reminded of some minor event. “It's okay,” he said, and Helmeppo was reminded that he'd gained plenty, gained a _friend_ , someone who'd been willing to go against the very people he had wanted to join, in order to protect Helmeppo, to save him.

But, “...why?” he had to ask.

“I know it's hard to change,” Coby replied, his bright, optimistic voice a near-whisper now, but still the same one Helmeppo now held very dear, “I know people do things because they think it's the only way.”

“But I never wanted to change,” Helmeppo said. Coby had told him, many times by now, that even while he'd been under Alvida's thumb, he'd still dreamed. Helmeppo never had. “I...” He hadn't been _happy_ before, he couldn't say that, but it had still been easy to live that way. “I was just going to be... like that... forever.” Even now, he missed it, some of it. Not who he'd been, _never_ , but his room, his things. He longed for luxury again, he wanted to have a rich home and fine clothes...

But he had never once earned that, had never acted in a manner befitting those privileges. His beast of a father had indulged almost every whim in exchange for Helmeppo keeping away from him. That was an old, constant pain that had been torn open into a new deep wound with Morgan's actions today.

He had to surpass his father, earn the rank that would make him a better officer than his father had ever been, so much better, because Axe-Hand Morgan had been a disgrace. Helmeppo wanted the rank that would let him live as he wanted because he could provide it for himself. He didn't want to bully anyone or steal anything ever again... he wanted it rightfully.

“You made a new choice after you saw a different way, and found out you're stronger than you thought.” Coby said. His words weren't emotional; they were earnest and matter-of-fact. He wasn't reassuring Helmeppo—he really sounded like he just believed it. It was still such a strange thing to be aware that someone believed something good about him. “Everyone should have the chance to change if they want to try.”

Helmeppo took a deep breath for the first time in what felt like years. He was still terrified of what horrible ordeals they were going to have to endure, but breathing felt a little easier now.

“Lets work hard together,” Coby said suddenly, and Helmeppo nodded once before remembering to reply out loud.

“Yes.”

*

Training with Garp was... beyond anything Helmeppo could have imagined. Which was a good thing, because he'd never have dared to attempt it otherwise.

“Oh, what a day!” Coby laughed weakly, but his grin was still huge as he fell onto his bed. “We're getting better. We''ll get great, too, you'll see.”

“I can hardly stand,” Helmeppo groaned. “I ache where I didn't know I could ache. It's going to be hell to move tomorrow,” he complained as he hobbled toward his bunk, but he couldn't stifle his smile even with his normal routine of whining. Not today, not even knowing everything was going to hurt even worse tomorrow.

“I know,” Coby agreed with a chuckle, completing the routine with his easygoing fielding of Helmeppo's gripes.

For all Helmeppo's resolve, something he'd found became firmer with each passing day of their grueling training, he'd never manage to curb his tendency to complain, despite how it tended to discourage him whenever he did it. Coby had laughed one day when Helmeppo had been driven to actually whine about his own whining. He had pushed his glasses up onto his forehead and raised his eyebrows. “You wouldn't be you if you didn't complain,” he 'd said, and smiled. “You still work really hard. I don't mind.” He'd flushed a little and looked to the side. “You don't mind me talking all the time. You complain about lots of things, but not that.”

Helmeppo had looked at him, pushing his hair out of his eyes with one hand—it was getting long, he needed to decide what to do with it—and blinked at Coby. He had never noticed anything to complain about. Coby's talking was reassuring. He was often muttering or murmuring, talking to himself mostly, chastising himself when they were having a harder day than normal, encouraging himself, and Helmeppo. “We can do it. We'll do it,” was what Helmeppo heard most of all.

Now, Helmeppo sat with a thump and a groan onto his own bunk, not willing to lie down, or he wouldn't get up again, he was sure. And anyway, from this vantage he had a better view of Coby. His friend and comrade had lost baby fat and sprouted inches since they'd started here, as well as strengthened visibly. His smile brightened his entire face and Helmeppo stared, since Coby's eyes were closed, and it was safe enough for just a moment. He got to look plenty during showers and daily changing at Coby's newly muscular form, sideways glances when Coby wasn't looking, but watching his familiar smile made Helmeppo's heart warm up instead of his body.

He knew what those reactions meant—he wasn't a fool, he'd long ago realized the import of his disinterest in women, but soon after understanding that, he'd quickly taken to loudly denying it. He'd been trying to live up to what he'd thought his father would want in a son. Like everything else back then, he hadn't been very good at it. But denying it had become a habit he wasn't sure how to break. Never mind the regulations against fraternization.

*

“Never MIND the regulations!” Garp bellowed at him. “Are you an idiot, boy? Haven't I taught you anything, gotten anything into that brain of yours?”

“Yes sir! You definitely have, sir,” Helmeppo responded smartly, though Garp was half-drunk right now, one heavy arm over Helmeppo's shoulders as they watched Coby smile and laugh in conversation with a knot of new recruits, who all hung on his every word. This function, a celebration of promotions for a few of the ship officers, was well-supplied with wine and good food. All of them were supposed to be off duty, Garp among them, and Helmeppo was trying very hard to work out where on Garp's scale of Serious Issues this conversation fell.

“Love's important, boy,” Garp looked him in the eyes then, and Helmeppo was taken aback at the intent sincerity there, as much as he had been by the man's totally unexpected perceptiveness about Helmeppo's emotional state. But Garp truly did mean what he was saying. “You don't let it get away because of _rules_.” The dismissive emphasis on that last word made Helmeppo repress a nervous grimace. He envied Garp his freedom. He wasn't quite sure Garp realized most of his subordinates couldn't, actually, just do whatever they wanted. Or maybe he did. “Just don't let the rules get away from you either,” Garp added, in his usual afterthought delivery.

“He'd never let that happen,” Helmeppo muttered, and then snapped his mouth shut even as his eyes widened. He really shouldn't have had that wine. Garp pulled back and grinned, far too knowingly for Helmeppo's comfort, then pushed himself to his feet to stomp off to another table.

Helmeppo saw Coby excuse himself from his audience and return to their table. He sat down with a happy sigh, and Helmeppo had to smile in return, elbowing Garp and his advice to the back of his mind.

*

He reached for Coby's arm one day as they were leaving their quarters. They'd been upgraded to a shared double room with their promotions, and it had been a wonderful thing, even if they were barely unoccupied enough to spend any real time there. At Helmeppo's touch, Coby halted, turned and looked curiously up at him. They weren't in a hurry just yet for their training, but they were both headed in different directions. They trained for combat separately now, Helmeppo's focus on blades meaning his master was different from the one teaching Coby _soru_.

Helmeppo opened his mouth, then closed it. Coby was right there, his open, curious expression making Helmeppo's heart ache with stifled affection. Now would be a perfect time for a subtle question, an oblique inference.

Instead, caught in looking down at his first, best friend's amiable face, he leaned down.

Then he froze, because so much for plans, so much for suave, he'd just... and no, dammit, he'd never ever wanted to be so obvious, because he didn't know, they'd never talked about love or sex or former partners. In Helmeppo's case, there were a few, people whom he'd treated, in retrospect, beyond horribly. In Coby's case—well, he hadn't a clue, and that was the problem.

He pulled back and tried to drag his self-control back together. “Sorry,” he said, shuddering internally at the wobble in his voice. Coby stared at him, eyes wide and his forehead frowning just the slightest bit.

“You just...” Coby trailed off, eyes widening even further before something like shock appeared, and Helmeppo's heart sank.

“I'm sorry,” he said again, voice approaching the general vicinity of brisk and firm this time. Better. “Forget it. Please? I'll see you at lunch.” And he fled.

And then he trained through lunch, bolting one of the delivered plates the chore girl brought for the weapons class before heading out for his shift up on the watch tower. He thanked her gratefully, getting a surprised smile in return that made him feel a little better about his day. He remembered his and Coby's time as chore boys—it was usually thankless, for all that the grunt work was essential.

The late afternoon was platoon maneuver drills, another task they were separated for, and it was busy, too, which took Helmeppo's mind off his fumbling that morning. So much so that he forgot his nerves right up until he reached the commissary for supper time, and Coby raised an arm to show he had an empty place across from him at one of the small, two-person tables.

The meal today was a good one, as always, but Helmeppo barely noticed the smells that would have had his mouth watering any other day.

Helmeppo carried his tray over with growing trepidation. Coby watched him approach, and never before had that bright grin been so daunting. It had been maddening, frustrating, infuriating, it had become familiar, comforting... loved. And now it was inscrutable.

“Missed you at lunch,” Coby said, starting to eat again now that Helmeppo had arrived.

“Uh. Sorry,” Helmeppo managed, and sawed mechanically at a slice of roast, sticking it in his mouth and chewing on automatic. Coby was doing likewise, but without the robotic overtones, and he looked up from his food after taking another bite.

“I wanted to talk to you about this morning,” Coby said around a mouthful of sautéd vegetables. He swallowed and Helmeppo did too, feeling the food go down his tightened throat almost painfully.

“I—why, there's nothing—just ignore—do we have to...?” Helmeppo trailed off, hearing the whine in his pleading.

Coby's smile faded to a serious, straight-on considering stare, and Helmeppo valiantly resisted the intense urge to fidget under the dark-eyed gaze. Mostly. The napkin in his lap found itself clutched in tense fingers. “I guess not,” Coby said, “but I was pretty sure you had some things you wanted to say.” His expression turned suddenly self-conscious, and Helmeppo's fingers, which had begun twisting his napkin into knots, went still. “And... I want to know,” Coby finished, his cheeks pinking up in a way that made Helmeppo's stomach flutter. That wasn't manly at all, but neither was fidgeting, and Helmeppo didn't care.

“You do?” Helmeppo asked. His voice rose to a squeak as he spoke and he coughed once and blinked.

“Yeah,” Coby's cheeks were still pink. He stabbed a chunk of cauliflower and looked at it longer than strictly necessary, then smiled at Helmeppo in a way that Helmeppo would almost call... _shy_.

“Well, I—I—” Helmeppo really had to stop tripping over his words when he was agitated. But today was a special occasion, so maybe a little flailing was allowed. Helmeppo already knew Coby didn't mind when he lost optimal coherency. “I like you,” he said finally, and his hands tightened so hard in his abused napkin that his fingertips hurt. His chest felt just as constricted, like he'd breathed in and couldn't get it out again. Speaking helped a little. “I mean, more than... you're my best friend, and I owe you everything, but I want...” His mouth was dry. _Damn_ it. He swallowed, trying to get across what he meant by expression alone, but he knew he probably just looked nauseous or strangled or something equally unprepossessing.

Still, he apparently communicated something, because Coby's blush deepened, his smile spreading slowly across his face. He reached somewhat awkwardly for his water glass, and held it out towards Helmeppo.

Helmeppo drank obediently, the condensation on the outside of the glass a cool shock under his hand.

“Alright,” Coby said, and Helmeppo put the glass down slowly, carefully. It would be uncouth if he spilled it.

“Al...right?” Helmeppo repeated. His voice was marginally less high than before. He counted it as an improvement.

“Yeah,” Coby nodded, firmly, and his perfect smile made Helmeppo feel like he was falling apart all over again, but for altogether more positive and hopeful reasons than he'd ever quite believed he'd discover.

It took every ounce of training he'd gained since arriving here, but he arrested the gleeful meltdown and pulled himself together with a long, steady breath. He could wait. They'd worked hard to earn their ranks and he would act in a manner that befit it while they were out among their fellows.

Coby seemed to realize what he was doing, and shifted in his seat, picking up his utensils and setting his hands on the table in a calm, well-mannered fashion.

“I'm glad,” was all Helmeppo said, sounding very professional and calm, he was sure, as he grabbed for his own knife and fork and stabbed at a little piece of vegetable. It took a couple of tries to impale the elusive chunk of carrot, but he came out victorious in the end.

Coby's smile widened and his eyes twinkled with the same amusement he often showed when Helmeppo was complaining yet again about some minor difficulty or other. Helmeppo felt deeply reassured. If there was a hope in the world of anyone actually loving him, it was the one sitting across from him now.

*

They got back to their room walking in nervous but companionable silence, the usual chatter not available to them just now, as Helmeppo's mind was altogether too embroiled in what he should say, once they had some privacy, what he might have to answer, if Coby had questions, what he might want to ask Coby, things about experience, about what he might want to do...

And then they reached their door. Helmeppo opened it and held it, letting Coby precede him. And then he got stuck, his hand fastened on the doorknob like letting go would release him to drown in dangerous waters.

Coby turned and looked him up and down. He laughed a little, and stepped back to reach out and grab Helmeppo's arm. He pulled him inside and closed the door himself then planted himself in front of Helmeppo, close enough that Helmeppo stepped back. Coby stepped forward and Helmeppo backed up again, until he felt the armoire against the wall dig into his back and he stopped.

“I thought,” he said, and his voice had risen to nearly inaudible levels, “I thought you wanted to... talk?” he asked, sucking in a breath as Coby's hands landed on his chest. Coby's fingers curled in his shirt, and he leaned most of his weight against Helmeppo, looking up. Despite Coby's growth, Helmeppo had put on a few inches of height as well, and he could still easily see over his head.

Coby made up for any lack of height by sheer force of personality, though. His ebullient, stubborn desire to succeed and persistant optimism filled a room like Helmeppo couldn't believe. Coby had a magnetism to him as well, pulling the best out of everyone he met. Coby would attribute it to that idiot Strawhat who'd started them both on this path, but Helmeppo knew better.

Helmeppo drew his arms up and around Coby's solid weight, unable not to, with him just there, so close. Coby gave him a searching look, half-shrugging in Helmeppo's grip. “Well... we know that we learn best by doing.”

“I just—I didn't know if you, uh,” Helmeppo's oh-so-eloquent vocabulary failed him. He wanted Coby, he wanted him now, he wanted him tomorrow, he wanted him forever. But he didn't want to do any of it _wrong_.

“I know theory,” Coby said, and flushed deeply, though his voice and expression stayed the same. “Practice will take, well, practice. Do you have... practice?”

Helmeppo's past encounters flashed before him then, and he let go of Coby like he wanted to drop him, and pushed him back. His hands remained on Coby's arms, gripping tightly enough to hold them apart when Coby tried to move close again. “No,” he breathed. “I mean, yes. I do. But the way I was--I was--I shouldn't...”

The pressure against his grip let up, then, and he felt Coby's hands settle on his arms in turn. He looked up and met unhappy, concerned eyes. “What?” Coby asked and Helmeppo stared and felt his heart sink.

“I... there were people... they thought that sleeping with me... they thought it would curry favour, and sometimes I would want one of them, and I'd use them, I'd let them think they'd get something, but...” Some had been older, trying to use him in turn... a few had been young, new recruits, feeling ambitious and looking for anything to gain a footing at their new posting. He had tempted a few with false, airy promises, and, immune to retribution, never made good on any of them.

“Oh...” Coby said slowly.

“I'd tell them they'd be rewarded, that I could pull strings... then I'd cut them loose.” A few had floundered badly afterwards, relying on favours that never came, and had washed out. He'd torpedoed their careers because of his whims.

“You were selfish and going after what you wanted,” Coby said quietly, and Helmeppo flinched. “You _were_... ” Coby repeated, like the emphasis on it being past made it any less wrong. “You didn't drug anyone, did you,” It was a statement, not a question. “You didn't force anyone.” The same.

“ _No_ ,” Helmeppo choked, lurching physically under Coby's grip. “But I still took advantage,” he said. There was no denying that. Sex as currency. Young recruits who let him touch them not out of affection or even attraction but just so that he would grant them something they wanted. At the time he had been concerned only with pleasure. In hindsight it made him feel like he'd only spread the stain that he was onto others.

Coby shook free of his loosened grip, shouldering his way close again and wrapping his arms around Helmeppo's chest, hugging them together.

“You grew, after,” Coby said into his chest. “Even feeling like this, now, means you're better than back then.”

“I almost made myself forget, like it didn't matter,” Helmeppo said raggedly. He'd left thoughts of his life before the marines to the wayside of the evening's momentum, but now he was stumbling. “I want—but I don't _deserve_ —”

Coby was the one to shove them apart this time, and his strong hands dug into Helmeppo's biceps as he shook him. “Who was first into the water after that new guy with the Mirror-mirror powers?” he demanded, “Who found that chore girl when she got lost and got her back to the ship before we left to follow the Rabid Wolf fleet?”

“Rabid Jackal,” Helmeppo corrected automatically. Coby smiled a little, encouraging, but Helmeppo grimaced. “Doesn't matter, doesn't fix—”

“I spent two years on a pirate ship that attacked people all over East Blue,” Coby interrupted him, and Helmeppo blinked at him in disbelief. Why would he bring that up now? It was irrelevant.

“You were stuck, you couldn't—”

“I could have, any day,” Coby shook his head. “But I never even tried. I was a coward. A disgrace—”

“You're _not_ “ Helmeppo gaped, “Never say that.”

“Then you either,” Coby told him firmly, and Helmeppo opened his mouth to retort, and found nothing to say. Coby met his nonplussed look with a serious, even stare, and Helmeppo didn't think a point-by-point comparison and tally of his most definitely _worse_ past misdeeds would budge him. Not when he had that look.

Finally finding his voice, Helmeppo grimaced at Coby. “That's not fair,” he said, the words drawing out into a whine, and he clicked his teeth shut and shot Coby a disgruntled glower that got a tentative smile in return.

Coby pulled him into another hug, and Helmeppo hugged back, clinging tight to the strong, narrow shoulders. “You aren't how you were then. People can change. You can be proud of what you've accomplished,” Coby said, words muffled as he rubbed his face against Helmeppo's chest. His voice was distracted. He seemed to have become fascinated with the edge of Helmeppo's sweater, fingers playing with it at the small of Helmeppo's back, starting to curl under.

Face buried comfortably in Coby's thick hair, Helmeppo bit his lip, then angled his head to press his mouth to Coby's headband-covered temple.

Coby leaned back then, far enough for them to look each other in the eye, and he stared up at Helmeppo with a soft, serious expression. “I think we talked enough,” he said, and while Helmeppo was still nodding, Coby pushed himself up on his toes and kissed him. His mouth was soft, warm, and sent heat spreading through Helmeppo along a whole wide spectrum of lust and affection. He pulled back a little, tilted his head slightly. “Maybe we can... practice?”

*

Helmeppo panted, feeling the flush that had spread over his face and chest, feeling the cool tile against his back, feeling the ebbing rush of orgasm. The hot shower spray was still hitting him on one side, and Coby was pressed up against him, wet and warm. Even with his eyes closed, Helmeppo could _feel_ his smile, the one that had gained a totally new slant when he'd determinedly gotten into the just-barely-big-enough shower with Helmeppo, and then waited about thirty seconds to get his hands on Helmeppo's cock.

Pretenses of helping him wash hadn't lasted long.

“Very... promising... practice...” Helmeppo sighed out, and finally opened his eyes to meet Coby's bright and gleaming ones.

Coby shrugged, and suddenly shifted a little, and his eyes dropped. “So that was good, huh?” He was shy again. Helmeppo hugged him.

“Good. Yes. Quite. Very quite.”

Coby laughed into Helmeppo's shoulder, and Helmeppo had to put a hand on his face, push him back, just far enough to kiss him through the smile, make it turn to eager response. He slid both hands down Coby's sides, feeling him move against the touch, and he felt almost faint with joy.

Then Coby thrust against his hip and returned Helmeppo very firmly back to the matter at hand.

Helmeppo pushed off the wall, turned them both and curled one hand around Coby's erection, hot and wonderfully hard against his palm. He pressed Coby back against the wall, kissed his mouth, his neck, and then he knelt.

“Ah—aah! Helmeppo,” Coby breathed. “Mmmmmh,” was all the sound he managed next, as Helmeppo took him into his mouth and wrapped his hand firmly around what didn't fit.

Gently first, tongue smoothing over the length, the head, and his hand stroking slowly and in tandem with the movements of his mouth

He was torn between closing his eyes to focus fully on what he was doing and looking up to watch Coby while he did it. The latter won out soon enough, as he glanced upward to see Coby's hands flat on his own chest and belly, wet skin shining in the steamy air.

Coby had his eyes closed; he looked abandoned to sensation. He touched himself, a thumb scraping under one nipple, fingertips pressing into the firm skin of his belly, traveling down, and down, to his cock, bumping over Helmeppo's fist and stroking over his cheek before rising again to run through the water drops decorating his body.

Unbelievable. Helmeppo had no power to resist that sight.

He slid his hand flat up between Coby's legs, nudging gently, just a little insistent, confident that if he tried anything that didn't flow with the pleasure Coby was clearly enjoying now, he would be made aware.

This, though, seemed welcome. Coby shifted his heels apart and his thighs parted so Helmeppo could raise his cupped hand under his balls, a soft, warm weight on his palm. He palmed them gently, earning a low moan from overhead, and sank as deep as he could down over Coby's cock, inhaling carefully as the head nudged the back of his throat. No further, it had been too long now, but Coby wasn't complaining at all, had in fact passed some threshold of control. He'd been mostly still all this time, but for brief, restrained twitches, but now his hips moved in a counter-rhythm to Helmeppo's hand and his mouth.

The sound of Coby swallowing seemed loud in the confined space, even with the shower spray still on and throwing off its steam. His breathing, too, was loud after that, and Helmeppo watched Coby, those hands no longer roaming but dragging over himself as he panted loudly into the damp air. One hand rose, hooking two fingers into his own mouth, biting down on them, and he _whimpered_ , the hand still on his chest fisting suddenly, and his hips jerked forward in a sudden and final break from the rhythm that they'd built up.

Helmeppo only pulled back enough that he didn't risk a gag reflex during this moment, swallowing easily, the flavour one that, while not pleasant, exactly, was certainly welcome, as much as having seen Coby come, been able to watch it, been able to _cause_ it, and feel it happen.

Sliding back and away some moments later, he carefully released the sensitized organ to the hot, wet air and wiped his mouth with the back of one wrist. He smoothed his hands down Coby's thighs as Coby let his fingers fall away from his mouth and his breathing evened out and slowed back to relaxed. Coby's other hand was stroking slow shapes over his stomach, idle traceries that were getting gradually slower.

As he stood, Helmeppo put his hand alongside Coby's, tracing again over the path his fingers took, and Coby sighed loudly through a widening smile, turning his face against Helmeppo's shoulder.

Seized again by nervous uncertainty, he clamped down on the immediate desire to pester Coby with stupid questions. _Was that good? Was I good? Was I good enough?_ , because insecurity was very much _not_ attractive, and Coby looked contented, even languid, and Helmeppo knew, no matter what his opinion of himself, that Coby had never lied to him and wasn't about to start here.

So he pinched his tongue between his teeth for a second, and drew his hand up to run the fingertips through Coby's wet hair.

“Think I'll have to practice that,” Coby murmured happily against him. “Mmmm.”

“That—really? I mean, certainly. Yes! No arguments here,” Helmeppo found _that_ an absolutely brilliant prospect.

Coby always had been a dedicated student.

Helmeppo vowed to provide frequent and varied examples.

*

Garp punched Helmeppo in the shoulder, and like (almost) every time there was a large crowd around, he remembered his own strength, because Helmeppo didn't go through the nearest wall, like last time. Helmeppo lowered his salute, and Garp looked him up and down, grinning with a very familiar, too-knowing smile that reminded Helmeppo far too much of the Strawhat idiot.

“Mission accomplished, eh, Sergeant?” Garp stage-whispered, and Helmeppo clenched his teeth, wishing dearly that Garp might have waited until Helmeppo _wasn't_ standing in front of the unit he commanded. Garp cocked his head and barked. “Well? Spill, blondie!”

“Yes, sir. Accomplished, sir,” Helmeppo managed, trying not to sound too strangled. Yes, accomplished. Coby certainly had. Very much so. Helmeppo tried very hard not to blush.

“Good!” And even if Garp was, clearly, insane... Helmeppo knew he was sincere, at least. That knowledge attenuated the long-suffering feeling, just a little bit. “Now quit dawdling and show me what you've got, here!”

Helmeppo turned on his heel, and snapped out the orders to his unit.

As they presented their maneuvers, Garp stood next to Helmeppo to watch.

“Come a long way, boy,” he said, sounding rather less insane than usual, and somewhat more simply fond. Maybe... proud?

“Thank you, sir.” Helmeppo stood a little straighter and adjusted his sunglasses.

What he had now was vastly more than he deserved. He would work until he had earned it.


End file.
